Revive: Ignite The Fire

What was the mission of Jesus? He told us clearly, I came to seek and to save the lost. That's the mission. And at first, as these churches were planted, they were planted with that mission as the core of who they were. When when Paul traveled to Ephesus and that church was started there, it was started rooted in that mission. And that's how Lakeshore got started. That's what it was all about. And we celebrated last year fifty years as a church, and that that's that's been the the guiding force has been the mission that God has called us to as a church. But here's the thing, other things start taking priority, and we lose that first love. [00:40:08] (51 seconds)  #SeekAndSave

But there's an enemy working against us. Right? He's trying to keep us from having experiencing that full life. And when we look around us, we see that a lot of people are struggling and defeated and and and the world seems to be sometimes in chaos. We have the news media flashing it in front of us every day. We see all the turmoil, all the division that's out there, and it becomes evident to us all that we really need revival. We really need our hearts turned back to God because he can bring the healing. He can restore the relationship. We can the life that he wants us to have even in the midst of all of this turmoil that's going on. [00:25:35] (41 seconds)  #NeedRevival

No matter what situation you're in right now in your relationship with Jesus, maybe you're close, maybe you're just drifting away a little bit, maybe you have wandered far away from that relationship being what it ought to be. It doesn't matter where you're at in that step, in that relationship. The way back is just turning around and taking one step back because he's right there. He's right there for you. He hasn't gone anywhere even though you've tried to distance yourself from him. You've heard this before. It's so true. There's nothing you could do to make him love you any more than he does right now. There's also nothing you could do to make him love you any less than he loves you right now. [00:58:02] (41 seconds)  #UnchangingLove

The third thing I want to see today is this, Jesus is offering Peter a second chance. When you love, Jesus gives second chances. If you really love him in your heart, if that's really what you want, even though you haven't done like you needed to do, even though you failed maybe many times, Jesus still allows you to come back. He still allows you to be restored in that relationship even when we failed, even when we've come short of what we should have been. That does not end the grace of God. In fact, there is no end to the grace of God. That's what you have to know. [00:57:25] (36 seconds)  #SecondChanceInJesus

But here's what happens. When we don't put God first, we almost always start putting ourselves first. That's the way it works for all of us. We get inward focused. We start thinking about ourselves and that becomes the higher priority over the things of God. So we start thinking about if I do this or don't do this, how does that affect my status among the things that I've now called my priority? What will my friends think of me if I say or do this? What will I status be socially? What will I lose followers? Right? How may I won't get as many likes on social media. All of those things start controlling us more when we're inward focused, [00:36:54] (42 seconds)  #FaithOverFame

Maybe you've been a Christian for some time and you remember what it was like when you first gave your life to Christ and how excited you were and how you talked about it for so long, you know, and, almost everybody you talk to, you say, well, I I I accepted Christ as my savior. I got baptized. That was such a great thing, and you you just couldn't help but take share that news with other people. When's the last time you did that? When's the last time you talked to somebody about how excited you are about that relationship you have with the father through his son and the sacrifice that he's made for you? [00:50:09] (34 seconds)  #ShareYourFaith

Where one moment you're just feeling like you're so on fire for Jesus, but then all of a sudden you're with a crowd or with a certain circumstance or certain situation where it's not as comfortable anymore to be there with Jesus. And so we just step back a little bit. I mean, we think it's not a big deal because we don't. It's not that we deny Jesus necessarily openly and tell people we don't believe in Jesus. It's just that we don't speak up for Jesus anymore. It can be so gradual and so little, incremental steps that we take distant distancing ourselves from Jesus that we don't even realize we've done it until we're way away from where we need to be in our first love. [00:54:56] (39 seconds)  #SpeakUpForJesus

You're invited into that relationship not because you've never messed up, but precisely because you have, and you need what only Jesus can provide for you. But there are others listening today, maybe you've been a believer for a while, but your love for Jesus has grown stat grown stagnant and cold. And today, you can allow Jesus to bring you a renewed love by remembering how he's loved you and how he's made you the priority that he made you when he was dying on that cross. He did it for you. [01:01:48] (31 seconds)  #GraceInvitesYou